12 Features Of The Chipolo Bluetooth Finder

Chipolo’s Bluetooth trackers are best known for 2 main features: Helping you find your keys & helping you find your phone. But that’s not all a Chipolo can do!

Find Your Things

You can easily find things you often misplace or lose like keys, wallet, bag, phone, backpack, kids’ toys or umbrellas, by attaching a Chipolo tracking device to them and then connecting it to the Chipolo app on your phone.

Whenever you’re within the Bluetooth connection range (max 200 ft / 60 m), you can tap the green Ring button in the Chipolo app and the Chipolo attached to your item will start ringing.

When you find yourself outside the Bluetooth connection range, you can still check the Chipolo app and see where your Chipolo finder was last connected on a map. The position on a map can be a good place to start your search or it can even give you an idea where exactly you left your lost keys or wallet, or who to call to best help you with the search.

Find Your Phone

If you can’t find your lost phone, you can double click the Chipolo and if you’re within the Bluetooth connection range, your phone will start ringing. It will also continue to ring until you double click your Chipolo phone finder again or swipe away the notification that displays on your phone screen.

If you’re out of Bluetooth connection range and you shared your missing phone with another phone through the Chipolo app (more on how to do this below), you can use the Chipolo app on the other phone to check your phone’s location on a map or make it ring by pressing the green Ring button.

If you haven’t shared your lost phone with another device, you can still check it’s location or make it ring through the Chipolo web app. And if you’re phone is truly lost you can leave a custom message on the lock screen for the finder.

Find Other Devices

You can also use the Chipolo app to track other mobile devices. If you have a tablet that you can never find, because your kids keep moving it around, download the Chipolo app on it and then share the tablet virtually to your phone through the Chipolo app. Then, just use your phone to make the missing tablet ring. Because shared devices don’t use Bluetooth to connect, you can make the missing tablet (or lost phone) ring no matter the distance between the two devices!

Community Search

This feature comes in handy when you truly lose your keys wallet or bag that has a Chipolo attached to it.

In some cases, the Chipolo tracking app on your phone can show an outdated location for your Chipolo. This can happen when a Chipolo connected to your keys or wallet loses its connection to your phone; for example, when Bluetooth is turned off, or the Chipolo app is no longer active in the background.

If you’re looking for an item with a Chipolo that hasn’t connected to the Chipolo app for a few days and it's not near enough to reconnect, ask the Chipolo community to help you with the search by tapping the blue ‘Mark as Lost’ button.

When a Chipolo finder is marked as lost, every active Chipolo user in the Chipolo community anonymously joins in on the search for your lost item. When someone with a Chipolo app running on their phone comes near it and the Chipolo can communicate its location to their phone, you will receive a notification on your phone and an email with the updated location, letting you know that your Chipolo has been found by the community.

Take A Selfie

Selfies are usually a pain because no matter what angle you take or how long your arm is, you can never get everything you want in the photo. It’s why selfie sticks are so popular!

Your Chipolo can also be used as a wireless selfie stick and it’s perfect for taking group photos or capturing the breathtaking scenery behind you - it will work as a remote camera shutter for as long as the Bluetooth connection with your phone is active.

How does it work? Open the Chipolo app on your phone and select the Selfie feature for your Chipolo. Then position your phone to capture the scene and strike a pose! And the best part is, it will fit in any pocket, so no more lugging around an awkward selfie stick.

Share Your Chipolo

Do you share your car keys with your significant other? And if you do, how many times a week do you look for them, because they’re not where they’re supposed to be?

When you attach a Chipolo to items you use together with your friends or family, you can share that Chipolo with them through the Chipolo app to increase your finding power. When you both download the Chipolo app on your phones and create your own Chipolo accounts, you will both be able to track and find the same keys or backpack or umbrella (not simultaneously, though).

There is no limit on how many other Chipolo users (or devices) you can share your Chipolo with. And the best part is, if the Chipolo is not connected to your phone, you will still be able to see when, where and with whom your Chipolo was last connected in the Chipolo app on your phone, making it easier to find.

Share Your Phone

You can share your phone through the Chipolo app with other Chipolo users the same way you would share a Chipolo. If you can’t find your lost phone, and your Chipolo is not nearby, you can then use the Chipolo app on another phone to make it ring or check its location on a map.

Since the Chipolo tracking app is installed on your phone, it doesn’t need to use a Bluetooth connection to connect and you can make the missing phone ring, even when it’s out of Bluetooth range.

Customize Your Chipolo

If you are using your Chipolo on your keys, car keys, purse, backpack, toy or umbrella, you can assign each one a different name and icon according to their task to tell them apart more easily. And if you're not happy, you can always change the name and icon of your Chipolo in the settings of the Chipolo app.

Similarly, you can also set up a different ringtone for each one of your Chipolos. There are a few different ringtones available in the Chipolo app, and it’s not just so that you don’t get sick of the same ringtone, it’s to ensure people of different ages and with different hearing ranges will be able to hear their Chipolos too!

Widget

The Chipolos connected to the Chipolo app on your phone can also be set up as a widget. Easily ring your missing items from your phone’s home screen, without even opening the app, just unlock your phone and press the Green ring button.

The Chipolo widget is available for iOS devices running iOS10 or later and Android devices running Android 4.4.2 or later.

Out of Range Notifications

Ever left home without your wallet, only to discover it missing when you tried to pay for something? Situations like this are not only embarrassing but also incredibly time-consuming since you have to go back home to retrieve your missing wallet.

When enabled, these notifications will trigger a small phone alert to let you know you’ve lost or regained the connection with your Chipolo, so that you can go back and take your missing wallet or keys with you. Because the connection is Bluetooth based, the exact range cannot be set (this can only be done with GPS trackers), and the alert will be triggered anywhere between 100 to 200 feet (30 to 60 meters), depending on your surroundings.

Each notification can be activated separately, so if you only want to know when you leave something behind, you can enable only those notifications.

You can even set up quiet zones for your In or Out of Range notifications using Named locations (more on these below). This feature will come in handy when you’re at the office, so your phone won’t chime every time you move too far away from your keys or wallet.

Named Locations

In the Chipolo app, you can name the locations you’re often at, such as home or office so that you can locate your lost things more easily. These named locations will then show in the details view of each Chipolo when it gets disconnected.

Your named locations are not specific to each Chipolo but are part of the Chipolo app settings, so once a location is named, this name will show for any of your connected Chipolos that are in that location.

Additionally, you can use named locations to mute the In and Out of Range notifications, if you have those enabled. So, if you don’t want the range notifications to go off every time you walk away from your keys or wallet at work, make it a named location, and the range notifications will be muted until you leave work.

Chipolo Web App

If you can’t find your missing phone, lost keys or wallet, you can still check their last known location in the Chipolo web app. Log into the web app on any computer and on the map that displays you will be able to see the last known location of any of your items with a Chipolo on it, as well as your phone.

Note that the locations displayed for the Chipolos will be the ones where the Chipolos were last connected to your phone, so make sure that the Chipolo app is always running in the background on your phone, updating your Chipolos’ locations.

You can also mark your Chipolos and your phone as ‘lost’ in the web app to alert the Chipolo community that you are on the lookout for your lost items. When a Chipolo or your phone is ‘Marked as lost’ in the web app, the entire Chipolo community anonymously joins in on the search. If one of them comes near your lost item and connects with your Chipolo, you will receive a phone notification and an email, alerting you to the Chipolo’s new location.

While you cannot ring your Chipolos from the web app (you need a Bluetooth connection to do that), you can ring your missing phone, or have it display a custom message on the lock screen for any potential finders.

You can also adjust your Chipolo account info, notifications and privacy settings through the Chipolo web app Settings tab.